Another sunny morning – was this the beginning of summer? It was beautifully calm and as we had even less distance to go than yesterday, 15 miles this time, we were in no hurry. Mind you, neither was the harbourmaster, as we tried to get some fuel (we wanted to top up the tanks) and we couldn't get the card reader to accept our card. The office wasn’t due to open until 10:00 when his staff of 3 young students (I would imagine that’s what they are) were due on but he wasn’t about to put down his hose pipe to help us, saying that we only had to wait 25 minutes for them to appear! I know that there are worse things to do than to sit in the sun in pleasant surroundings to wait to be served by a very attractive young blonde but being an old curmudgeon, I took exception to his attitude and we set off to Oxelösund forthwith.

Initially there was no wind to speak of so for the first hour, we progressed under engine but thereafter, the breeze gradually filled in so we were able to sail on a very broad reach in the SSE wind, approaching Oxelösund by 13:00 . The industry of the town is visible from miles away, namely its steel plant, earning 11 billion SEK annually from the production of high strength steel, used in the manufacture of bridges, mechanical shovels and cranes, amongst other things. Having said that, once past the harbour area with its large ships loading and unloading, one doesn’t really notice it at all.

As we approached the gästhamn (guest harbour) part of the harbour (the remainder is reserved for private yachts and was quite full) we were greeted by two Pro Marine staff who were keen to take our lines and were waiting on the pontoon that they thought we were going to use. We disabused them of this notion by carrying on to the fuel berth and they scuttled round to take our lines again. This helpfulness was evident in all the staff’s dealings here, they are really understand the concept of service. Once we’d topped up (32 litres @ 528SEK) , again they headed off to one of the new pontoons to wait for our lines, allowing us to go alongside rather than using the usual stern buoy method .

Here in Pro Marina and as advised by Eddie & Roos Loosvelt on Spiriwit and who are a bit north of us, they offer ’ buy one get one free’ so we thought we might as well take advantage of that and be here for two nights, as there is enough to do in the area. As such, we had time to spare and as the sun was out, we thought we would relax and sunbathe. This was OK for a while (see picture) but sadly the breeze picked up and it became chilly, then I remembered that we have a cockpit tent and within a couple of minutes, we were snug and cozy in a warm cockpit. It never ceases to amaze me how instantaneous is the effect of warming once one is sheltered from the wind.

For our evening meal, we had one of our favourites, a Burmese mince curry with a side salad of raw onion and garlic; it’s called something like Ahmathahin but I can’t find it on the internet. Never mind, it is nice but we’re not after demolishing it!

Now during the evening, the weather deteriorated and the wind started blowing from the SE, so much so that the boat was rocking quite considerably in the swell . I therefore decided that it made sense to move it, back to the fuel dock which was protected seawards by a solid wall, thereby affording us shelter on the downwind side of the wall. However, and it does pain me to recall this, I’m afraid my crew, who by now was in bed, flatly refused to move and to assist. I couldn’t believe my ears! I mean how could she? Be that as it may, she did and I had no alternative other than to make the best of a bad job and try to get to sleep. It saddens me even more to report that crew was quite correct, I did sleep quite happily through the night, completely oblivious to the wind and torrential rain (I am told).

One last point – whilst we were fuelling up, one of the helpful staff with the name of Connie (apparently this is a masculine name in Sweden and of course, this is not how it is spelt), told us of boat trips that leave daily at 08:00 and 12:00 to see the seals on the islands. Now I fondly thought that this was to see the very rare ringed seal and I signed us up, at 1340 SEK (that’s about £120.00, a fortune!) , reasoning that this was such a rare opportunity that it shouldn’t be missed. It was only later that evening that the disobedient one started checking and realised that the odds were that the seals in question were a Baltic population of our every day, seen them a million times, grey seal. Now I found it very hard to justify £120 for a 4 hour trip in the first place but to spend that much to go and see grey seals, no way, Hosé. Of course it was only fair to let the boatman know so we set the alarm to give me time to see him, people were told to gather at 07:30, so that was the plan.